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I found various portions of the President’s speech troubling, not the least of which was his failure to understand – or purposeful mischaracterization of – the Supreme Court’s First Amendment decision in Citizens United. Brad Smith explains the falsity; I won’t repeat it. Similarly troubling was the President’s announcement that he intends to propose further violations of the First Amendment in connection with lobbying and campaign finance. I suppose we should be generous and wait for the details before assuming they will violate the First Amendment, but it is not like this President has given us even the slightest reason to suspect that he takes the First Amendment seriously, or values it in any meaningful way. Not that the last one did either. Power corrupts, etc, etc.

Which brings me to the most disturbing aspect of the speech for me – the notion that we have a “deficit of trust” in government. My objection to this notion is not that it is insulting to, or casting blame upon, the American people, as Matt Latimer, and to some extent Craig Shirley, have suggested. My objection is that it champions the erroneous and extremely dangerous notion that we SHOULD trust our government. America does not have a deficit of trust, it has a surfeit.

The whole point of our constitutional democracy is that a national government – and the various regimes that occasionally control it – is dangerous. The Constitution erects constant road blocks on the operation of the government. It is supposed to be hard to pass legislation; free speech is supposed to make life difficult for elected officials; gridlock is the preferred default state; and multiple factions bickering with each other and failing to agree except in rare instances is PRECISELY what Madison suggested was the best protection against the even greater danger of a MAJORITY faction. So when the President complains that too much bickering makes it hard for him to pass legislation that is bitterly divisive; when he whines that the other party is not playing nice and is blocking all his legislation; when he threatens to curb lobbyists representing powerful interests that oppose his ambitions; when he laments that politicians worry too much about the next election and public opinion; and when he aims to increase America’s inadequate trust and faith in the government, he gets things entirely backwards. That, to me, is what was most troubling about his speech – that it repeatedly inverted the constitutionally designed relationship between the federal government and the citizenry and championed the distinctly erroneous notion that more, and more efficient, government was what America needs and deserves. The constitutional scheme is otherwise. The federal government was certainly viewed as a necessary consolidation of power, but it was thought to be extremely dangerous to liberty as well. Competing factions keep its dangerous tendencies in check, and only when a sufficient percentage of such rabid opponents finally agree on something can we have any confidence that the result is actually in the national interest.

Now, in fairness, such an inverted and self-serving view of the federal government is not unique to last night’s speech, to President Obama in general, or even to Democrats in general. It is a flaw in virtually ALL national politicians (with a handful of notable, though perhaps partial, exceptions). Again, power corrupts, etc. etc. It is hard to think of a modern President other than Reagan who even came close to acknowledging the proper role of the federal government. Americans should be suspicious of, cynical about, and lack blind faith in government precisely because politicians of all parties are likely to aggrandize their own power and attempt to create a majority faction that is a danger to liberty regardless which party is in control.

The President’s speech suggesting otherwise is no more than we should expect from a politician seeking to increase his power – it is part of the eternal tug of war between government and the People that the Constitution envisions. Perhaps there is no particular blame for him tugging for power in such an expected manner, but it is our responsibility to tug back; to call him on his BS and exercise one of the checks that the Constitution envisioned. So, Mr. President, neither you nor the government “deserve” America’s trust or faith. Not because you are a bad person; not because you are a Democrat; not for any policy differences people may have with you. Your most fundamental failing – shared with every President to precede you and every member of Congress – is that you are a politician and part of a government wielding tremendous power. America should NEVER be lulled into trusting such an intrinsically dangerous class of people no matter how eloquent, intelligent, or well-meaning any individual example of the class may be.

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